
Update:
- A pair of consumers voluntarily dismissed with prejudice claims that LG knowingly sold Kenmore brand refrigerators containing bad parts that cause them to prematurely break down.
- U.S. District Judge Julien Xavier Neals dismissed the class action lawsuit without costs “in favor of or against any party.”
- Court documents did not reveal the reason for the plaintiffs’ decision to dismiss the class action lawsuit.
- The dismissal ended claims LG refused to initiate a recall for the Kenmore refrigerators, despite them allegedly containing defective parts.
- The consumers cited two other complaints where LG chose to settle claims revolving around its Kenmore refrigerators.
(Oct. 19, 2020)
The makers of Kenmore refrigerators face a class action lawsuit from plaintiffs who claim their product is knowingly sold with a defect that leads to breakdowns just years after buying it.
LG installs a specific type of compressor into their Kenmore refrigerators that is made from parts that don’t last, the class action lawsuit alleges, and are eventually fixed with the same parts, which doesn’t solve the initial problem.
Plaintiffs Shannon Marriot and Michael Wasle both bought Kenmore Elite branded refrigerators in 2016. Within three years, they stopped working, according to the filing.
They say LG’s Kenmore refrigerators demonstrate a pattern and history of breakdowns, adding further that “LG’s compressors have caused consumers problems for many years.”
The filing elaborates how defective compressors cause the Kenmore refrigerators to break down. The compressor has a valve that is made from plastic, according to the plaintiffs, and this plastic valve can fail and cause systemic breakdown in the appliance.
They further explain the Kenmore refrigerators also house an evaporator that holds tubing that develops air leaks from pinholes. These leaks “generate excess pressure that stresses the compressor” which in turn contaminates the lubricant in the compressor and “infects the entire sealed system.”
The issues that the plaintiffs had with the compressor persisted, however, even after technicians were dispatched to repair their Kenmore refrigerators, because the problem was with the defective compressor that LG manufactured and installed.
“Even if a repair is performed, [the Kenmore refrigerator] … remains substantially certain to fail within two to three years because LG and its authorized technicians use the same defective parts as replacements,” the plaintiffs said.
Instead of offering refunds, LG “attempted futile repairs or replaced defective compressors with other defective compressors,” according to the lawsuit.
They further point to two class action lawsuits relating to Kenmore refrigerators LG has settled.
Clark v. LG Electronics U.S.A. “placed LG on notice of the defective nature” of its compressors in 2013 by focusing on its Smart Cooling System. Despite settling those claims, the filing says LG continued to sell these Kenmore refrigerators.
Six years later in Bentley v. LG Electronics U.S.A. Inc., Kenmore refrigerators were facing legal action again but have recently reached a proposed settlement.
That settlement, however, does not include the compressors identified in this current class action lawsuit, plaintiffs said.
Beyond previous cases, the plaintiffs in this class action lawsuit further describe the thousands of complaints from customers who bought Kenmore refrigerators and “overwhelmed” repair people called in to fix them.
LG “has had exclusive and direct knowledge of the scale of the compressor problems from its communications with its authorized repair personnel, who have been inundated by repair requests for years,” the filing alleges.
Customers who bought these Kenmore refrigerators expressed feelings of frustration over having to do these repairs so soon after buying them, according to the class action lawsuit, citing an expectation that such appliances have a 13-year average lifespan.
In one online complaint cited in the class action lawsuit, a customer describes how one repairman stayed prepared by keeping spare Kenmore refrigerators compressors in his truck after “he had replaced 7 already in July.”
Plaintiffs further reference extensive media coverage on the defective Kenmore refrigerators, citing five specific stories from network broadcast affiliates from across the country.
News stations from San Diego to Connecticut were airing interviews with frustrated Kenmore refrigerator customers and technicians dealing with faulty compressors.
Kenmore refrigerators “are failing quite pandemically,” a repair person was quoted saying in one of those stories, according to the lawsuit. “It’s a national thing.”
Formally, the plaintiffs are accusing LG and their Kenmore refrigerators of breach of warranty, violations of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty and New Jersey Consumer Fraud acts and fraud by concealment.
Have you purchased a Kenmore refrigerator with an LG compressor? Have you had it replaced or repaired? Let us know in the comments below.
Counsel representing the plaintiffs in the Kenmore refrigerator class action lawsuit is Olimpio Lee Squitieri of Squitieri & Fearon LLP.
The Kenmore refrigerator class action lawsuit is Marriott, et al. v. LG Electronics U.S.A. Inc., Case No. 2:20-cv-14514, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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229 thoughts onKenmore refrigerator class action over compressor defect dismissed
I also have a Kenmore Elite refrigerator model 795.74025.412 that has an LG compressor model FLB075LBNA which has gone bad. The Sears technician is here now replacing the compressor and flushing the system. The only reason I had the refrigerator repaired is because I’m hoping to get the cost of labor refunded when the class action lawsuit is settled.
My Kenmore Elite compressor quite before July the 4th 2025. I had a certified LG technician check it but sears has to have their technician check it. I have sat around two days now only to be canceled. Now it’s July 24th and I still don’t have a refrigerator. Now next Thursday I get to seat around again.
My Kenmore Elite compressor stopped working in July 2025. I purchased it in July 2015 but it wasn’t delivered until Oct 2015. I hve called every number i can but nobody seems to care,
Kenmore elite and Kenmore Pro both had compressors that failed.
had a kenmore that the compressor died, purchased november 2019. i even had the sears home warranty protection that i was paying monthly for. They ordered four parts that sat in my living room for over a month, I was without a fridge/freezer for over a month they told me they couldnt replace the compressor until they received a software kit and there were numerous people waiting before it would be my turn. They would make an appointment and never show up, i took so many days off from work and they would cancel my appointment just as the techncian tracking showed that i was next on their stop. I finally had to drop their home warranty and ordered a new fridge.